Big fruited determinates

[mama_lor]

Can you recommend some big fruited determinates? I have grown Em champion but wasn't that happy with it.

[Labradors]

That's a pity that EM Champion disappointed you! As soon as I saw the heading, I was going to recommend it .

What didn't you like about it?

Linda

[mama_lor]

The taste was on the bland side, and susceptibility to BER.

[bower]

Sophie's Choice is often named as a tasty red in this category. I've tried to grow it twice but got wrong seed (indeterminate) and then a germination fail.
Black Sea Man is another, which I have tried from several seed sources and failed to get a determinate plant.

[mama_lor]

I had the black sea man, and it also wasn't determinate. Good tomato however.

[Rockoe10]

Are you ok with a Semi-Determinate?
I'll be sending in seeds to the MMMM in a couple months.

My family grows a large tomato that is technically an indeterminate, but by late season it typically isn't over 5 feet tall. The fruit really slow the growth down.

[Labradors]

Mama-lor So sorry that you got bland taste and BER on EM Champion. BER puts me right off too and I don't give varieties that do that a second chance .

Bower I also got the wrong seed for Sophie's Choice the first time. The second time, I hardly got any tomatoes! Some say that they get good production, so I've always meant to try it again.......

Linda

[Tormahto]

I don't recommend Sophie's Choice as a "big-fruited" variety. Fruit size is all over the place, for me, anywhere from 1 to 10 ounces. It is one of the rare, tasty determinates, though.

[Cole_Robbie]

I would recommend it for a market variety more than home garden unless you like a mild flavor, but the yellow variety taxi will make very big early fruit.

[habitat-gardener]

The biggest fruits I've harvested so far are Zolotoe Serdtse: 4-8 oz., and there have probably been 3-4 pounds of them to date. I've eaten only one so far, and it was fairly bland. I will probably use it as a cooking tomato unless further tasting reveals more depth. They are quite a bit bigger than EM Champion, which is barely limping along.

Almost all my others are in the 2-4 oz range, and only my determinate and dwarf varieties have so far produced anything of note.

[mama_lor]

Thanks everyone, I think I'll give Sophie's Choice a chance.

[slugworth]

My mountain pride has some big ones.
75 days
I was shopping for mountain fresh but one place had the mountain pride instead.

[Toomanymatoes]

If you are interested in determinates because of the size of the plant, have you considered some of the dwarf varieties? I grew about 12 different ones this year, most produced good sized and tasty tomatoes. Maybe not as productive as some determinates. I also grew Sophie's Choice and thought it was a pretty good tomato. It is a very compact plant, but produced over a dozen medium sized tomatoes of consistent size (at least so far).

[Shule]

I would suggest looking for tomatoes with Verticillium wilt resistance, because a lot of those are determinate, and not small-fruited. However, most (not all) of those determinates are F1 hybrids. Examples of OP determinates in this category include Marglobe, Marglobe Improved, Ace 55, Rutgers (and/or one or more of the improved ones), Cal Ace, Cherokee, Pearmech, Liberator, Mariana, Mogambo, Allstar, Atlantic City, Fletcher, Shady Lady, Sunbeam, and some others. Most of these might be more medium-sized than large, but I believe there are large ones in the category (some claim to be large in some descriptions). A few of those might be F1 hybrids that didn't mention the fact on Cucurbit.info.

There's also Floradade, Maria, Sheyenne, Kalinka, Katja, Red Rocket, Siletz, Superbec, Ultrabec, Legend, Homestead, North Dakota Earliana, Firesteel, Kolea, and some of the Heinz tomatoes. Most of those are medium-sized, and some are semi-determinate.

You might consider Coldset and Fireball (they're semi-determinate). Coldset didn't have strong flavor when I grew it, though (never grown Fireball); it was a lot like Celebrity F1 in growth habit, fruit size, production, plant-size, and taste. The fruits were big.

If you don't mind large-planted determinates, my BSX (which is probably a cross, and not the true BSX) gets lots of large fruit early in the season.

Burpee Gloriana was another like that for me, but it was prone to cracking. Good tangy flavor, though. The fruits were surprisingly large (much larger than Earliana, Burpee Sunnybrook Earlianna and such).

[wykvlvr]

Large Barred Boar only gets about 3 ft tall here and has large tomatoes. DH and a friend like them I thought them insipid but I like Tigerella and Green Zebra.
This year I am trialing a new one called Northern Light (that is correct Light not Lights) This is what Miss Penn's Mountain Seed says about it.

Dependable early beefsteak with excellent flavor. Compact vines set heavily with 2-3” lg. fruits. Tolerant of climatic surprises. This is a very early tomato - setting heavy clusters of full-sized beautiful fruits.
Sweet start - full-bodied finish - absolutely delicious.

If it lives up to the hype some seeds may find their way into the swap....

[Shule]

Oh, speaking of Wild Boar Farms tomatoes, I know it's supposed to be indeterminate, but Pink Berkeley Tye Dye seemed determinate to me (all the fruits were produced in a very short time, and quite a few of them--for me in 2017), and it can get big fruit. The fruit size was larger than Pink Berkeley Tie Dye is stated as being (large--not medium).

[mama_lor]

I have grown Pink Berkeley Tye Dye. More compact than others, but not determinate. A great tasting tomato, but unreasonably soft. Growing Sophie's Choice this year, will see how that goes. Plant is looking good, very compact, but not rugose leafed, which tend to suffer from Mg deficiency (I assume a common ancestor had this problem, and all dwarfs I tried have it).

[karstopography]

I keep seeing photos of Atlas tomato around. The plant looks compact. The fruit looks large.

[Toomanymatoes]

I am trying a few more determinates this year and will try to remember to report back on the outcomes.

Byčij Lob
Charbonniere du Berry
EM Champion
Mikado Rozovyi
Plourde
Rozovyi Gigant Ukrainskiy
Rozovyi ŝečki
Velmozha

[OhioGardener]

Oh, speaking of Wild Boar Farms tomatoes, I know it's supposed to be indeterminate, but Pink Berkeley Tye Dye seemed determinate to me (all the fruits were produced in a very short time, and quite a few of them--for me in 2017), and it can get big fruit. The fruit size was larger than Pink Berkeley Tie Dye is stated as being (large--not medium).

We must have a similar strain. Mine topped out at about 3 1/2 feet in rich soil and put out a ton of large tomatoes, many 1 lb, with great flavor. The downside was a very concentrated harvest and soft fruit that didn't keep long. I'm fairy certain my plants were determinate too.